Supply Chain Management

Logistics

The Ricoh Group is lowering both costs and environmental burden by reducing waste in five areas of the logistics process: packaging, shipping, space, transshipment and storage. Global initiatives include increasing loading efficiency, practicing modal shift and optimizing transportation routes.

The milk run system

In the milk run system, a single truck collects parts from multiple suppliers after the type and number of parts to be provided by each supplier has been compiled. This raises efficiency by reducing the distance the truck has to travel.

How the milk run system moves cargo more efficiently

Reducing waste and environmental impact with eco packaging

Resource-recirculating eco packaging

Eco-friendly packaging requires less cardboard. Since 2001, the Ricoh Group has adopted resinbased resource-recirculating packaging that can be used repeatedly. This is employed primarily in Japan for reconditioned products. In addition, the Ricoh Logistics Group has adopted radio-frequency identification (RFID) for managing and recovering resource-recirculating eco packaging. RFID tagging helps us manage a series of arterial (delivering goods to customers) and venous (collecting used products from customers for recycling or safe disposal) logistics flows that ensure proper recovery and reuse.